1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular lamp for an automobile in which an air hole for effecting a breathing operation is formed in a lamp body, and more particularly to a vehicular lamp for an automobile in which a tubular member, having a labyrinth-like air passage communicating with the air hole, is formed on the lamp body.
2. Related Art
FIGS. 9 and 10 show one example of a conventional vehicular lamp of this type in which a tubular member 3 is formed on and extends from a lamp body 1 in generally surrounding relation to an air hole 2 formed in the lamp body 1, and a cap 9 is fitted on the tubular member 3. With this construction, a labyrinth-like air passage, communicating with the air hole 2, is formed within the tubular member 3.
A generally horizontally-extending partition wall 4 is formed within the tubular member 3, and a slit 5 is formed in a lower portion of a peripheral wall of the tubular member 3, and extends from a distal end of the tubular member 3 toward a proximal end thereof. The cap 9 is fitted on the distal end portion of the tubular member 3 in such a manner that part of the slit 5 is not covered with the cap 9. A front edge 4a of the partition wall 4 is disposed rearwardly of the distal end of the tubular member 3, and an upper space 6 and a lower space 7 are formed within the tubular member 3, and the upper space 6 communicates with the interior of the lamp body 1 through the air hole 2, and the lower space 7 communicates with the upper space 6 through a gap between the cap 9 and the front edge 4a of the partition wall, and also communicates with the exterior of the tubular member 3 through the slit 5.
The air hole 2 in the lamp body 1 communicates with the exterior of the tubular member 3 through the air passage (that is, the upper space 6 and the lower space 7) formed within the tubular member 3, and the air hole 2 effects a breathing operation, but water will not intrude into the lamp body 1 through the air hole 2 since this air passage extends in a labyrinth-like manner.
In the above conventional technique, the air hole 2 is relatively large, and besides the tubular member 3, forming the air passage communicating with this air hole 2, is formed into a cylindrical shape having a relatively large outer diameter determined in accordance with the size of the air hole 2.
Therefore, the position of formation of the tubular member 3 must be considered so that the tubular member 3 will not interfere with projected portions (including a clamp portion for supporting a cord for supplying electric power to a bulb, and a bracket for being fixed to a vehicle body) on the rear side of the lamp body 1, and those members on the vehicle body which are provided around a lamp-receiving portion. Therefore, there has been encountered a problem that the position where the air hole 2 is formed is limited.
It has been confirmed through a study by the inventor of the present invention that if the size of the air hole 2 is small, this is effective in that water is less liable to intrude into the lamp body 1, and that the breathing operation by the air hole 2 is hardly influenced regardless of whether the size of the air hole 2 is large or small. Therefore, if the size of the air hole 2 is made small, and the tubular member 3, forming the air passage, is formed into a vertically-elongated, oval cross-section, so that the right-left width of the tubular member 3 is reduced, the tubular member 3 is less liable to interfere with other members, and based on these findings, the present invention has been made.